The Central Intelligence Agency said Saturday that it’s more likely a lab leak caused the Covid-19 pandemic than an infected animal that spread the virus to people, changing the agency’s yearslong stance that it couldn’t conclude with certainty where the pandemic started:
The agency made its new assessment public two days after former Republican lawmaker John Ratcliffe was sworn in as its new leader.
“We have low confidence in this judgement and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA’s assessment,” an unnamed CIA spokesperson wrote in an email sent to reporters Saturday.
The statement didn’t include any additional details about what led the agency to change its assessment and whether it had intelligence that would add weight to the theory that the virus had leaked from a research lab in Wuhan, China.
A U.S. official granted anonymity to share private details about the assessment said former CIA director William Burns had told analysts that they needed to take a position on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, but that he was agnostic on potential theories.
A new CIA analysis of the intelligence it had on the virus’ origin was completed and published internally before Ratcliffe’s arrival, the U.S. official said. Ratcliffe authorized its public release, the official added.
Under new leadership, the CIA is suddenly able to find its own @$$ with both hands.